IT WAS SO obvious--yet none of us saw it coming. One day we were pawing desperately through our bags in search of emergency tampons and finding only their mangled remains, and the next day there was Vinnie the Tampon Case Distributor.

Vinnie is just a regular guy from Queens who has become a bona-fide obscurely beloved folk hero. Why? He makes and distributes a whimsical canvas case for carrying menstruation-related items, complete with a handy period chart so you can "know your flow." Even people who have no need of a pouch for their personal period products will find Vinnie's website, www.tamponcase.com, highly entertaining. Read about Vinnie's 94-year-old Grandma Joya, who stuffs the period charts in the cases while watching her favorite soap opera. Watch Vinnie hand out his cases in the morning when folks "aren't awake enough to remember that they are squeamish about menstruation. And there is no need to be squeamish about the natural cycle!"

You can't order the cases from this site--after all, Vinnie is only "a one-person tampon case distributor, not a multinational corporation"--but he tells you where you can get them. And if you bump into Vinnie on the street (a New York City street, I mean), he still gives his cases away for free, as he has always done, true to his creed "to protect (your tampons) and serve."